Juan Rivera – Rivera has been the River of Dreams for my NL-only team with Gaby Sanchez batting like Gabrielle Reece. Over the last seven days, he is 9/25 with two homers and 10 RBIs. While he is batting an unimpressive .264 over his last 30 days, he has an impressive 25 RBIs. One’s place in the lineup usually isn’t important – however, with marginal guys like Rivera, batting clean-up can lead to a lot of RBIs he doesn’t really deserve. It’s a flawed stat, exploit it!

Jason Kipnis – In case you missed it, Kipnis came off the DL with a bang, pow! Over the last seven days, he is 9/26 with a homer and two steals. He is now 33/113 with seven homers and four steals in the majors. With Brett Lawrie going down, Kipnis is the premier young batsman to own down the stretch. Grab him!

Allen Craig – Craig’s season-long battle for playing time has finally been realized in the form of Matt Holliday’s untimely injury. Craig has taken the opportunity and beaten it: 8/29 with three homers over the last seven days. He is a must add in almost any format – certainly leagues that run 12 deep. He’s a great addition over most second basemen at this point.

Travis Hafner – A healthy Hafner is a good Hafner. Over the last seven days, he’s been a mashing heifer: 6/18 with two dingers. He has now hit safely in seven of the eight games he has appeared in since coming off the DL. If you were plugging holes with Mike Carp or Mark Trumbo, Hafner should be a better option.

Eric Thames – It was a blistering seven-day stretch for Thames: 9/27 with eight runs and three dingers. Thames, after 239 MLB plate appearances, sits at a .272/.319/.475 line (everything you hoped Delmon Young could be). While he strikes out 23.3% of the time, has a 12.3% swinging strike rate, and doesn’t walk (just 5.9%), his line drive percentage (24.4) is pretty impressive. He’ll likely never be an on base machine, but I don’t see why he can’t hit .270 the rest of the way with 5-7 more homers. In that line-up, he should provide plenty of RBIs and runs, as well.

Corey Patterson – One time Oriole great (I kid), Patterson is getting consistent playing time for the Jays. In the last week, he went 11/29, scored eight runs and hit two homers. He now has four bombs and seven steals on the year. Last year, Patterson hit .269/.315/.406 with eight homers and 21 steals in 341 plate appearances for the Orioles. At this point, a 10 HR, 20 SB campaign is almost a given. There will be a dry spell, but, so far, he has cut down on the strike-outs a tad. Patterson is now a quality player for 12-team leagues, my god.

Allen Craig – Even without the second base eligibility, Craig would have been a star over the last week (11/22, eight RBIs). Also with just 98 at bats, Craig is the 16th ranked second baseman on the year – and can only go up. Craig, an eighth round pick in 2006, has torched minor league pitching (.308/.369/.517) and AAA especially (.321/.380/.548). With the various injuries surrounding the Cardinals’ offense, Craig’s bat will find a consistent place. As that happens, he’s going to hit over .300 with at least 10 more homers on the year. Sounds like the makings of a near top-10 second baseman.